Urban Ed Resources • Lesson Plans

Lesson Plans for Debating Civil Rights strategies, charting census data, etc.: 
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/malcolmx/tguide/ 
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/about/
Both videos can be reserved through your school or the NYPL at:
http://www.nypl.org 
Take the online poll regarding Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Divide the class into groups of two; assign half of the groups the debate between Washington and Du Bois, and the other half the debate between Malcolm X  and Martin Luther King Jr. Helpful links:
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/malcolmx/peopleevents/p_malcolmx.html
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/mlk/
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/malcolmx/sfeature/sf_poll.html   
Have students use Census Bureau information (individually or in small groups) to prepare a simple line graph or bar graph comparing the most current data on black and white Americans on each of these topics, or others of your choice: (a) life expectancy, (b) infant mortality, (c) share of population that lacks health insurance, (d) share of population that has graduated from high school, (e) share of population that is the victim of a homicide, (f) median income, (g) share of population that is poor, (h) share of population that owns a home. Link:   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/malcolmx/tguide/index.html

Students dramatize the incident that started the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s: Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.  Objectives: Students define the word boycott, learn about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott, create a dramatization of Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute.   The classroom resources sections includes .pdfs of the King speeches, worksheets for analyzing documents. Other ideas: http://web.archive.org/web/20040217074612/www.lessontutor.com/belm16.html

An independent lesson to foster critical thinking over Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. From An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan  Author: Mary Barton, English instructor  School or Affiliation: Bishop Carroll High School, Wichita, KS. Were My Dreams Realized? - Lesson Plan.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is an American hero, a man who dared to dream. How do we help young children connect their own life experiences to those of Dr. King? This lesson explores ways to help students make connections to Dr. King through reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities that not only provide a glimpse into Dr. King?s life, but empower students to help bring Dr. King?s dream into reality. Most important, it encourages them to dream their own dreams.

K-6 Elementary Ed. Lesson Plans at About.com: http://k6educators.about.com/cs/martinlutherking/a/mlkingjr2.htm
K-8 --Dozens of MLK Lesson Plans at:
http://www.eduplace.com/monthlytheme/january/mlk_activities.html